Kirk Odom became the second man in two months to have his rape conviction overturned due to erroneous hair matches. Odom, 49, was released in 2003 but only found to have been wrongfully convicted early this July after a court-ordered…
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Kirk Odom became the second man in two months to have his rape conviction overturned due to erroneous hair matches. Odom, 49, was released in 2003 but only found to have been wrongfully convicted early this July after a court-ordered…
Congressional lawmakers have proposed legislation that would create federal grants to establish forensic science standards in an effort to reduce wrongful convictions. The Forensic Science and Standards Act is sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. The…
An Alameda County Grand Jury has found serious problems with the Oakland Police Department’s (OPD) crime lab. The report details a huge backlog of evidence waiting to be tested, inadequate facilities, and a severe staffing shortage. In 2011, the Forensics…
The U.S. Supreme Court once again weighed whether lab technicians must testify as to the results of DNA tests they perform. However, the answer was anything but clear. In the past few years, the Supreme Court twice ruled that DNA…
David Lee Gavitt, 54, walked out of prison last week after 26 years in prison. Gavitt was wrongly convicted of the arson murders of his wife and two daughters. Fire investigators suspected the fire was arson due to the burn…
James Kluppelberg, 46, was released from prison Thursday after serving 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Kluppelberg was convicted in the 1984 arson deaths of six people after he was connected to the crime by…
Robert Dewey, 51, was freed last week after a joint motion to reverse his conviction was granted by a Mesa County, Colorado judge. A re-examination of DNA evidence in the rape and murder case exonerated Dewey and pointed to another…
Fingerprint analysis, once thought of as a gold standard of forensic science, is coming under increasing scrutiny by scientific experts. In 2004, neuroscientist Itiel Dror studied the process of fingerprint analysis. Dror argues that even competent experts can be swayed…
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